[Dog]

Black'c comments had to cleared at the highest levels...he doesn't speak from the cuff...Iran better watch out they are playing with fire.

[Dog]

fyi..

[Cap Huff]

Big news!!!

[leadpenny]

he doesn't speak from the cuff

Twenty eight years in the agency, that is probably true.

[Cap Huff]

"if he does not surrender"

This is an interesting choice of words. It makes it sound like someone is telling him to surrender. "Come out with your hands up, or we're coming in to get you!" Maybe it is just the Pakistani rendering of what really was said, but I can't think of any other time when his surrendering was ever talked about in public.

[leadpenny]

U.S. Search for Bin Laden Gathers Steam
15 minutes ago

By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The United States is rounding up and questioning the relatives of fugitive al-Qaida leaders to generate information on the possible whereabouts of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and his top deputies. This tactic helped lead to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s capture.

On Saturday, Pentagon (news - web sites) and Pakistani officials denied an Iranian state radio report that bin Laden had been captured "a long time ago" in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan (news - web sites).

But some U.S. officials do say they have been able to extract useful information from Afghan and Pakistani relatives and friends of al-Qaida fugitives, providing hints on the possible whereabouts of the organization's leaders.

So far, the information the U.S. has received is unconfirmed and does not mean the terrorist leader's location has been pinned down or his capture is imminent. U.S. officials caution that rumors of significant progress are overstated.

With the weather improving in Afghanistan, the U.S. military has sent troops and technology to the country to aid the search and to give forces on the ground more opportunity to track down bin Laden. He is the United States' most wanted terrorist for his leadership in planning the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Rounding up relatives for questioning helped bring about the Dec. 13 capture of Saddam, the former Iraqi leader. U.S. officials hope the tactic could lead to information on the whereabouts of bin Laden and his top deputies, especially when combined with information from spy satellites, communication intercepts and prisoner interrogations.

U.S. military officials have said they are planning a spring offensive in Afghanistan in the hopes of capturing bin Laden, former Taliban leader Mullah Omar and their associates.

Meanwhile, American commanders in Afghanistan have expressed new optimism about finding bin Laden. Late last month, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty said the military believes it could seize bin Laden this year, perhaps within months.

Other U.S. officials try to temper such optimism.

In a sign of an increased focus on the Afghan-Pakistani border, Pakistani rapid reaction forces have been deployed to selected areas in the region, a mountainous landscape that runs 2,000 miles from the Himalayas in Pakistan's northern territories to the desert of southwestern Baluchistan.

Pakistani officials told The Associated Press on Friday that satellite telephone intercepts from last year indicated al-Qaida members were hiding near the border. Two intelligence officials said participants discussed a man called "Shaikh" — a code name for bin Laden.

"Some people who were speaking in Arabic have been heard saying Shaikh is in good health," one of the intelligence officials said.

A U.S. defense official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Pakistani forces have killed or captured more al-Qaida members than any other U.S. ally. "We continue to aggressively pursue the remnants of al-Qaida and the Taliban," the official said.

[Quilla]

In an exclusive interview with Geo TV, Black said that our intelligence agencies are aware of the presence of some senior al-Qaeda leaders in Iran who are dangerous.

Hmmm. About six weeks ago, Mansoor Ijaz told Brit Hume that bin Laden was in Iran. Yet, after I found out that Ijaz was a big Clinton donor, his status as a reliable source dropped considerably.

[F14 Pilot]

Been posted in DoctorZIn's thread before, but thanks for attention.
http://www.freerepublic.com/~doctorzin

[InvisibleChurch]

i want to know how earl bin laden is travelling over all the mountains of pakistan and afghanistan with a dialysis machine ...

[freeangel]

I misread the title of Iran having a contract with aq. Then,again, there might not be much of a difference with the talk that iran is threatening libya to not reveal any nuke secrets that flew between them.

[swarthyguy]

TV Interview PIC. www.geo.tv

[Persephone Kore]

"Iran in contact with al-Qaeda"

no kidding. does this surprise anybody?

the news is the us demand that iran "expel or extradite all members of" al-q.

with all the internal and now external stress, and the increasing rigidity of the ayatollahs, let's hope that the iranian government cracks under the strain.

[nuconvert]

Something's gonna happen this week. That's my prediction.
(course I've been wrong before...) I'm going out on a limb.......

I think Iran may turn over a bunch of alQaeda before next week.
March 8-10 is when the sh!t hits the fan for Iran as far as their nuc program. The EU isn't happy, Iran may be looking at Security Council sanctions. So, before the big meeting, I think they're gonna make a big play.
I think they're going to try to make some major points by turning over alQaeda they've been holding for a while now, or disclosing exactly where they can be found. I don't think Osama will be in that group.
This way they can help to diffuse some of the anger over the nuc materials they've lied about, and uranium enrichment they've been doing, to get the U.N. and IAEA to "turn the other cheek" once again. And get the U.S. not to push for sanctions quite yet. If they have their oil exports cut off, they're in deep do-do.
We'll see what develops........(if nothing happens, you never saw this - lol)

[winker]

Terrorist Policy: Anyone who Harbors a Terrorist is a Terrorist. Anyone who gives aid and comfort to a Terrorist is a Terrorist! Still Valid I guess?

[progop]

All this recent noise is very interesting. No doubt about it. If there is anything to it, UBL or Zawhiri will be caught or killed within the next 7 to 10 days I'm guessing.

All we can do is wait and see. I do think the phrase "sand in the hours glass" (or something to that effect) is very telling....This smells of "inside psych-ops" letting "someone" know we are on to them.

I also find the comments "unless he surrenders" very paculiar (not sure what to make of it, but interesting).

I'm sure DevGru and Delta are just waiting somewhere on the border of Pak/Afghan for the right Intel to come in....Lets hope it is soon.

I definitely hope all this is more then just shaking the tree (to see what flushes out).

[Criminal Number 18F]

Iran's support for terrorists is not news. For as long as the State Department has been keeping a public list of State Sponsors of Terrorism, which during the "what, me worry?" Clinton years morphed to "Nations of Particular Concern" or some such feel-good twaddle, Iran has had the leading position on that list.

More people are killed, maimed, and deprived of liberty by terrorists who are funded, trained, or otherwise supported by Iran, than are victims of terror sponsored by all other nations combined. Most of this terrorism happens to foreign people in foreign lands like Israel, Lebanon, Indonesia, and former-Soviet Central Asia, so Americans tend not to hear about it, but there are dedicated people who work on these things and keep track.

The US knows it has one great ally, though, against terrorism in Iran: the ordinary Iranian people, who take pride in their Persian heritage, seek the positive in their Islamic faith, and reject the ayatollahs' partnership with evil and death.

Iran will be free, and then where will the terrorists go? I can answer that. Prison cells, interrogation rooms, perhaps the gallows. When the Iranians get their freedom, which is as inevitable as the changing of the seasons, you really don't want to be the foreigner who has stained Persian honour with innocent blood.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F